


Bullet wound + Gas station + Scolding

by Sapless_Tree



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016) Whump, Blood Loss, Gen, Hurt Angus Macgyver (Macgyver 2016), Hurt Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), Whump, also present are some dudes up to no good, broken arm, gunshot wound, matty is just there through a video call at the end, road trip except it's not a road trip and Mac is bleeding out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27522604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapless_Tree/pseuds/Sapless_Tree
Summary: Jack drove, cradling his broken left arm close to his chest with Riley riding shotgun. Jack wasn’t too keen on letting his little girl sit between two captive men being banged up already-- he was pretty sure she’d cracked a few ribs in the fray. Mac hadn’t fared much better; a bullet had hit him near the collarbone (memories of Lake Como were sure to come around knocking soon as Mac tried to get any decent rest) and he was bleeding all over the seats.Even with one of the men unconscious, someone had to be back there with the other to make sure he didn’t try anything funny. Mac had done more while feeling worse in the past, so having him between the two men didn’t worry him as much-- Jack still worried of course, he always worried. But his unwavering faith in his partner won out over that worry-- that, and necessity of circumstance.They really were in the middle of nowhere.Or: In the aftermath of a mission, Jack, Mac, and Riley have to transport three bodies and two criminals back to Pheonix without keeling over on the ride there
Relationships: Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016) & Riley Davis, Riley Davis & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	Bullet wound + Gas station + Scolding

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! Been a hot second since I uploaded, hm? ahah  
> Anyways, this was based on [a tumblr post by sixtyninepercentth0t](https://sixtyninepercentth0t.tumblr.com/post/634255162665582592/my-absolute-favorite-trope-is-when-the-huge-fight#) that I thought was funny. Enjoyyyyyyyy
> 
> (lmk if the link doesn't work, this is my first time tryna put one in here and ao3 is smarter than me)

The middle of absolutely nowhere was the perfect place for illicit activities and other horrible things. No law enforcement, no witnesses, nobody around to pay attention-- to interfere. That is, until you set off an explosive in an area that definitely was not an official bomb testing site.

Something like that would catch the attention of quite a few people. A few high-up people, actually. Wondering why the hell there would be massive explosions in a place there _should not be_ massive explosions. The last approved nuclear weapons testing hadn’t been since the early ’90s in Nevada, so whoever was blowing off things in Utah more than definitely didn't have permission to be doing so.

Five men on three, it took all the clips Jack had on him, a half-baked plan filled with more ‘probablys’ and ‘maybes’ than anything else, one gunshot wound, and a few broken bones before two of the five men were restrained. The other three were stuffed lifelessly into the trunk of the rental car.

Jack drove, cradling his broken left arm close to his chest with Riley riding shotgun. Jack wasn’t too keen on letting his little girl sit between two captive men being banged up already-- he was pretty sure she’d cracked a few ribs in the fray. Mac hadn’t fared much better; a bullet had hit him near the collarbone (memories of Lake Como were sure to come around knocking soon as Mac tried to get any decent rest) and he was bleeding all over the seats. 

Even with one of the men unconscious, someone had to be back there with the other to make sure he didn’t try anything funny. Mac had done more while feeling worse in the past, so having him between the two men didn’t worry him as much-- Jack still worried of course, he always worried. But his unwavering faith in his partner won out over that worry-- that, and necessity of circumstance. 

They really were in the middle of nowhere.

“Mac, you keeping pressure on that back there?” Jack asked not for the first time as he turned his head back to check on Mac.

“Yeah,” he responded slowly. Sure enough, he had the shirt they’d stolen off of one of the bodies in the trunk still dutifully pressed against the wound on his chest.

“Just hold on, buddy,” Jack said as he continued to speed down the stretch of nothing. “Soon as we find someplace to stop we’ll get some supplies and have you all patched up.” Jack waited, nodding his head when the affirmative noise finally floated in from the backseat. “Riley, honey, how’re you holding up?”

Jack turned his head for a moment to get a good look at her before focusing on the road again. She was in pain-- he could see it all over her face. He hated that look; it was the one that always took over her features when she was trying to be stronger than she really felt. 

“I’m fine,” she said. “Just keep going.” She tried to hide the urgency from her voice, but he could tell she wanted to get to a rest stop just as bad as he did.

“Don’t you worry darling, you and Mac are gonna be a-okay. Just hold on for me all right?” The man that was awake in the back chose that moment to complain about his head. “You can just shut up,” Jack told the man. “You’re probably concussed from when I had to headbutt your ass,” he said-- there was no sympathy in his voice for that man.

“Jack,” Mac said, interrupting whatever other things Jack had planned to shout at the man.

The older agent’s voice was suddenly gentle again. “Yeah, what is it, bud? You doin’ okay?”

“Was going to ask about your arm,” Mac said. “It’s broken isn’t it?” 

Jack let his gaze flick down to his arm for a moment. The middle of the forearm was black and blue and swollen. It tapered off into angry purples and reds away from the worst of it, but there was no blood and no bone showing-- it just hurt too much to use.

“You don’t need to be worrying about that,” Jack said. “You just focus on staying awake and keeping pressure on that for me, okay?”

The man spoke up again: “Can I have some water?”

“The hell you can,” Jack shot back. “We haven’t got any and even if we did I wouldn’t be giving it to you. Don’t interrupt again or I’ll put one in you,” he threatened, using his knees to keep the wheel steady enough to flash his gun out. 

“Easy, Jack,” Riley said. “Matty’s going to be pissed already. You can’t question a dead body.”

Jack relented, putting the gun away and taking proper hold of the wheel with his good arm. “I wasn’t gonna kill him,” Jack said. “I was gonna shoot him. But only just a _little_ bit.”

“You can’t shoot someone just a _little_ bit,” Riley said with a laugh. Her laugh was quickly cut short though, and she brought her hands to wrap around her aching ribs as she moaned. She ignored the worried look Jack sent her way. 

She turned to the man in the back seat. “So, what’s your name?”

Jack spoke up first, “Ri, what’re you doing-- you should be taking it easy, not chatting up a criminal.”

“If for some reason you kill this guy, I’d rather not spend hours in debriefing getting yelled at by Matty about killing the guys we needed to bring in. Figured we should try and get some intel now before you get trigger happy,” she explained. “I’ll ask again: what’s your name?”

The man was less than cooperative with most of the questions. He’d answered Jeremy Rader for his name-- could be an alias, but it was a start. The unconscious man was going by Raymond Santiago. Past that, Rader clammed up about any other information and ignored Riley’s questions. 

“Ri, please just let me shoot him,” Jack said, a playful hint to his tone. 

“No, Jack.”

“Oh it would be so easy,” Jack continued. “Maybe get him right where he tagged Mac? That’d be funny, huh Mac?” Jack glanced up at the rearview (which had been trained on Mac instead of out the back window like it was supposed to be) when he didn’t reply. “Mac?”

He was still awake-- kind of. Mac’s eyes were hazy, eyelids drooping closed every so often and being forced back open in some slow attempt at a blink. His head bobbed a little with every slight shift of the car; it looked more like he was trying not to nod off. Jack was most concerned that Mac wasn’t keeping pressure on the wound anymore, though. He still held the shirt up to it like he’d been told, but he hardly pressed down. The blood-saturated shirt wasn’t helping a thing.

“Woah, hey now. Don’t check out on me just yet, brother,” Jack said urgently. “Stay with it for me, hoss. We’ll get you patched up in no time.”

“I’m awake,” Mac said, voice coming out slow and mumbled. 

“Good man. Let’s keep it that way, okay?” Jack said. Mac hummed in agreement, but it came out as something more like a groan. 

They drove on for a long while. 

Mac was in and out of consciousness-- more in than out, but it was still worrisome. Riley’s breathing sounded more labored. She hadn’t punctured a lung, but she had definitely been better. And Jack’s arm sent throbbing pain radiating through him. Unpleasant, but not life-threatening. It was late. They were all tired-- exhausted really, Rader included. 

Jack didn’t even see the gas station until Riley pointed out the lights becoming visible in the distance.

“You hear that Mac? We’re gonna fix you up. And Riley, we can probably get you some pain meds.” Riley reminded Jack of his arm. “Yeah, yeah, we’ll pick something up for that too.”

Mac said something, but it was too soft and slurred to make out.

“You know I don’t know what you’re saying back there,” Jack said, trying to keep his faux-scolding from letting on how worried for Mac he was. “Come on, syllables and words, kid.” Mac didn’t try to repeat himself, and the bloodied shirt was slipping from his grip as he couldn’t hold his arm up to the bullet wound anymore.

“Mac?” Riley tried, but Mac was too out of it to respond.

“Hey, you, Rader,” Jack said, catching the attention of the man. “You help my friend there keep pressure on the bullet _you_ put in him and I’ll get you that water at the gas station.”

Rader eyed the back of Jack’s head suspiciously. “And why should I help you people?”

“Well the alternative is a matching bullet wound of your very own,” Jack threatened. “Don’t be stupid.”

Rader grumbled about it for a moment, but (using both hands due to the fact that he was bound at the wrists) he picked up the bloodied shirt and pressed it against Mac’s chest. The pressure was enough to startle Mac awake.

“We’ll be there in a few minutes, just hold on.”

\---

It took longer than the promised few minutes before the rental car finally pulled up to the gas station. Jack put the car in park and regarded the group. They looked awful. Santiago was out cold and Mac was well on his way. There wouldn’t be any way for Jack to hide his broken arm and he definitely wasn’t going to untie Rader or leave Santiago alone. Riley was the only one that would have been able to pass off as normal-looking if it hadn’t been for Mac’s blood all over her clothes.

Jack pulled the key out of the ignition. “Okay,” he said once the car went quiet. “Here’s how this is gonna go. All of us are going into that gas station together; we’re not going to talk to anyone that may be in there. We’re there for basic supplies,” he said. 

He turned to Rader. “If you try to cause a scene I _will_ make you regret it.” Regarding the whole car again, he continued: “I’ll carry Santiago; I don’t trust him by himself here, even if he is unconscious. Don’t wanna find out the hard way if he’s faking. Riley, do you think you can help Mac?”

“Yeah,” she replied, “I can do that. The two of us can hang around Rader. You can’t carry Santiago and drag this guy around the store, too,” she said, pointing her thumb to Rader.

“We’re all sticking together,” Jack stressed, “I don’t want a single one of you out of my sight. Understood?” There were various affirmatives and nodding. “Okay. Riley, you can get out. Y’all in the back just sit tight while I come around for you.”

Jack and Riley got out of the front seats. Jack went around to the backseat and opened the door on Santiago’s side. Hauling him out, one-armed, Jack threw the man over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and motioned for Riley to help Mac get out. 

Mac could stand on his own for the most part, but Riley was there to steady him when he swayed every once in a while. Riley shut the door and hooked an arm around Mac, being careful not to hurt him. The two walked around the car and opened the door for Rader, watching him closely as he got out of the car. 

The group made their way into the gas station store. The cashier didn’t even look up from his phone. He gave the arbitrary required greeting, but otherwise he largely ignored the group. And for that, they were grateful. 

Riley grabbed one of the store’s shopping baskets, and together the five went through the isles of the gas station. 

“Maybe grab some food,” Jack said as he eyed the snacks, “it’s going to be a long ride back to civilization. It’s too bad I didn’t bring my road trip mix with.” Mac let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “You laughing at me, man?! Guess we’re not getting jolly ranchers then,” he said.

Riley grabbed the jolly ranchers anyways, as well as a packet of skittles for herself and an assortment of Jack’s favorite candies.

“Can we get pretzel chips?” Rader asked as Riley was grabbing chips.

“What makes you think we’re buying you snacks?” Jack said, “just ‘cos we’re stuck together doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for shooting my partner. No, we’re not getting pretzel chips for you. You’re getting a water and that’s all, and I can change my mind about that, too… Pretzel chips-- seriously? Who even likes those?”

Jack was about to scold Rader some more, but Mac stumbled right into a shelf as Riley was grabbing some food a few steps away. Santiago in one hand and the other arm useless, Jack couldn’t reach out to steady the blond himself. But he was reassured as Riley was by his side in a flash.

“Thanks,” Mac mumbled, listing to the side again. Riley righted him once more. Mac’s gaze was unfocused, not seeing much and definitely not registering any of the blurred images he _could_ see. It seemed that suddenly standing was taking a lot of effort.

“Jack we need to do something for this bullet hole right now,” Riley said, expression laced with fear and worry.

Jack nodded, “okay, I hear ya. Sit him down real quick. Stay here, I’ll get some stuff,” Jack said. Riley guided Mac to the floor, propping him up against the shelf and sitting next to him. Jack set down the still-unconscious Santiago and grabbed Rader by the shirt collar.

“You’re coming with me,” Jack said to Rader. “You two just sit tight and keep an eye on sleeping beauty for me, okay? I’ll be right back.” With that, Jack and Rader were off, looking for bandages and some kind of first aid kit.

Riley, in the meantime, tried to keep Mac awake. She shook his leg periodically and kept pressure on the bleeding hole in his chest the best she could. She kept a slew of soothing words going, but they were more for herself than him.

“Riles,” Mac said, looking in her general direction-- his vision was too blurry to look her properly in the eyes. 

“Yeah, Mac. It’s going to be okay-- how are you feeling?” 

Mac bobbed his head and let it loll back against the shelf. “I’m all right,” he reassured, words slurring together. “Kinda dizzy... I’ll be fine.” He continued to talk, but his voice had grown too quiet and garbled to understand. She leaned in closer to try and hear him better, but she couldn’t make it out.

“Hurry up, Jack,” Riley called across the store. The sudden shouting had startled Mac a little closer to awareness.

“I’m comin’ Ri,” Jack called back. True to his word, Jack returned to them about a minute later, carrying some supplies and with Rader still in tow. “All right, buddy,” Jack said, crouching down with the supplies he had in his good hand. “We’re gonna fix you right up.” Jack pulled Rader down with him and ordered him to stay put.

Jack set all of the things onto the ground and thrust the water bottle he’d brought into Mac’s loose grip. He held onto it, but wasn’t quite tracking everything enough to realize he should be drinking it. 

“Riley, can you give me a hand here?” Jack asked as he unbuttoned Mac’s shirt to get a good look at the bloody mess there. “I’m gonna need your help patching him up.”

Jack and Riley made quick work of it-- only having to threaten Rader a few times as they applied a proper dressing to the wound and reminded Mac that he needed to drink the water. Once they had that finished up, Jack scooped Santiago up once again while Riley helped Mac to stand. 

She grabbed their basket, putting in the things they’d opened up and used, the other medical supplies Jack had grabbed (so he could make himself a sling), and the bottles of painkillers for both herself and Jack. Rader was allowed to grab a water as well and put it in the basket.

The cashier barely batted an eye when the group approached the counter. He merely accepted the basket of goods and began ringing it all up. He didn’t ask about the blood, the products that had already been opened or partially consumed, and he didn’t ask about Santiago draped over Jack’s shoulders. 

Riley helped Jack get the wallet out of his pocket since he couldn’t do it on his own with the broken arm. She handed over the cash and told the cashier to keep the change as he handed over the bagged products.

“Also,” Jack added on right as the group was about to leave. “That aisle over there,” he gestured towards where they had applied Mac’s dressing. “We kinda made a little bit of a mess.” It was an understatement to the smears of blood Mac had left behind. “Sorry about that.”

The cashier seemed unfazed. He mumbled something about not getting paid enough before grabbing a mop and heading back there.

\---

The sun had almost risen fully by the time Jack pulled the rental car into the private airport’s parking lot. The backseat looked like a crime scene. There was blood everywhere, and all three passengers were dead to the world. Santiago hadn’t woken up, Mac had passed out at some point, and Rader fell asleep easily once the drive had gotten quiet.

Riley was sleeping, too. She snored in the passenger seat, looking much better than she had earlier-- the pain meds must have kicked in. Jack knew he could feel them. His arm still hurt, but the agony had faded to a more manageable throb.

Jack hated to wake his kids (Rader and Santiago be damned), but he had to get the whole group and three bodies onto the Phoenix jet Matty had said would be waiting for them. 

And waiting for them it was. 

Jack woke everyone in the car-- Santiago didn’t get up and Jack knew Matty was going to kill them if that man had brain damage bad enough to impair his memories. 

The pilot helped carry Santiago and load the bodies onto the plane while Jack supported a hurting and very clumsy Mac. Riley kept an eye on Rader, getting the two of them on the plane. Jack only had to scold Rader for a minute and a half before he was getting up out of Jack’s plane seat (no, it didn’t have his name on it, but it was _his_ seat-- he always sat there).

Once they were all settled, Mac fell right back asleep on the couch seat even before the plane took off. Riley pulled out her laptop and video called Matty to catch her up to speed.

“Took you long enough,” Matty said. She seemed serious, but not angry quite yet. “You’re on the plane, I see. Where are the boys?”

“I’m here,” Jack called from his seat.

“Well get your ass on screen, Dalton. You’re not done with your mission until those five guys you were sent to retrieve are in our interrogation rooms. Where’s blondie?”

Jack made his way up the plane’s aisle and plopped down heavily next to Riley. “Mac’s sleeping. And we’re not waking him up. He was shot, so you best have medical waiting for us with every bag of blood in the place ready for him.” 

“Is he that bad?” Matty asked, eyebrows pulling together. The makeshift sling on Jack’s arm hadn’t evaded her notice either.

“Was for a while,” Jack said, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Couldn’t get the bleeding to stop until we found a gas station-- he lost a lot, but he should be okay. He passed out a few times, but you know Mac. He’s a fighter. Plus, we got him patched up the best we could before he even went into shock this time. As for the five guys we’re supposed to be bringing in…”

Whatever crack in professionalism there had been when Matty had heard her boy was hurt was gone at Jack’s sheepish trailing-off words. “What did you do, Dalton?”

“What, me? I didn’t--” Jack started, throwing his arms up innocently.

“Jack thought it would be a good idea to kill three of the targets,” Riley said, interrupting the older agent.

“Jack!” Matty scolded.

“Hey, it’s not all bad,” Jack defended. “We’re bringing in two of ‘em still. One of them is good for questioning right when we get there.”

“One?” Matty asked, sounding unimpressed. “What’s wrong with the other one?”

Riley spoke up. “He’s been unconscious the whole time-- we can’t wake him up.”

“But that one wasn’t my fault!” Jack said before Matty could begin to blame him. “He hasn’t been up since Mac clocked him on the head with that thing he made.”

Matty rubbed at her temples. “Only you three could mess up a simple op this bad,” she said, shaking her head.

“Hey now, Matty,” Jack said, “we didn’t totally screw the pooch on this one. We’ve got the names of both the guys we’ve got. That’s something, right?” 

“Except it isn’t,” Matty said. “They could have easily been lying to you. Until you run Riley’s facial recognition on them, you can’t know for sure they’re who they say they are. And even then, a name is only that. We need actual answers, and the only way we’re going to get that is by interrogating those men.”

“That man,” Jack amended quietly. Wrong move.

“I don’t care about grammatical particularities, Jack,” she said. “What I care about is the fact that I sent you on an assignment to extract five men and bring them back to be interrogated. _Five_ men. And now you’re bringing me three bodies, a guy who might be virtually useless, and only one man in the shape I asked for.” 

“Well it's not my fault these guys were seriously packing,” Jack argued. “It would have ended with bullets either in them or us, and Matty that’s not even a choice. Mac already took one and I wasn’t about to let them get any more shots at him or Ri.”

“That doesn’t mean you had to kill three of them,” Matty shot back quickly. “You’re a highly trained agent, and you know how to temporarily incapacitate a target effectively-- I know you do. So when you go ahead and pull something like this, you know I have to reevaluate how susceptible you are to being emotionally compromised on future missions.”

“Oh come _on_ , Matty,” Jack said with an exasperated roll of his eyes. 

Riley interrupted suddenly, standing up. “If you two are just going to keep arguing,” she said, “then I’m sure I don’t need to be here for this. I’m going to go check on Mac.” And with those words, she left Jack and Matty to argue over the video call. 

Riley made her way back to where Mac slept peacefully on the couch. She almost felt bad waking him. 

“Hey, Mac,” Riley said when he’d finally opened his eyes. “How’re you doing?” She asked, waiting patiently as he took a minute or so to take in his surroundings.

“Riles, when’d we get on the plane?” Mac’s voice came out quiet and weak. His words still seemed to slur into one another a bit. 

“About twenty minutes ago,” she answered. She wasn’t surprised that he didn’t quite remember being woken up for the short walk from the rental car to the plane’s couch. “We’ve got a little less than an hour before we touch down in Los Angeles. Jack’s taking a scolding from Matty for us right now.” 

Mac let out a slow laugh. “Better him than us.”

“Yeah,” Riley agreed. 

The two went quiet after that; Riley was content to just sit in the seat across from the couch. She was beyond exhausted, and she could see Mac’s eyes flutter as he fought sleep. Once he’d let his eyes slip closed, Jack was calling his name.

“Mac, you awake over there?”

He let his eyes slide back open. “Yeah, I am.”

“Good,” Jack said, walking over with Riley’s laptop in hand, one unhappy Matty glaring through the screen. “Matty has some questions about what you did to Santiago.”

Mac groaned. “Nevermind, I’m not awake,” he said, letting his eyes fall closed again.

“Nice try, hoss,” Jack said. “The hun wants a piece of you for that little trick you did at those guys’ base. You want help sitting up?”

“No,” he replied. If he were being honest, he wasn’t feeling up to sitting up-- or moving at all, for that matter. He was still pretty dizzy and his shoulder felt like fire. “Maybe if I don’t sit up Matty will go easy,” Mac joked. 

“You know I can still hear you, blondie,” Matty said. “Jack doesn’t know how to mute a call.” Mac sent a glare Jack’s way. 

“So let’s talk,” Matty said as she smiled. It was a familiar grin-- she was going to give him hell.

**Author's Note:**

> I am working on a buncha stuff rn, but I am s l o w. So idk expect some stuff eventually.
> 
> Also!! [Join the MacGyver discord :0!!](https://discord.gg/qkSYduwrr9) it's not got a whole lot of people just yet, but everyone there is super friendly and supportive!


End file.
